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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Lincoln's Favorite Carriage

Abraham Lincoln's favorite carriage.

It was this carriage that took him, his wife Mary, major Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris to Ford's Theatre. The carriage is a 4-passenger barouche fabricated by the Studebaker Brothers. When the doors are opened, steps unfold. It's now part of their museum along with the carriages of Grant, Harrison, and McKinley.

The last photo of president Lincoln.

This photo was taken by Henry J. Warren during a photo session around the time of Lincoln's second inauguration. Mr. Warren took some candid photographs of crowd scenes on March 4th and two day later on March 6th Warren took this picture out on the White House Balcony.

I think the colour, or lack of colour helps give it a sinister look. Imagine it painted in a shade of yellow or blue. This would give it a much different appearance. The shape is very elegant and I think beautiful.

Your series of Lincoln assassination-related posts made me think of the (alleged) parallels between the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations (Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln, Lincoln's supposed secretary was named Kennedy, that kind of thing). Informative Studebaker link, I didn't realize they made horseless carriages before the cars. I used to have a penny attached to a card with a list of the Lincoln-Kennedy "parallels" with a little head of Kennedy engraved next to the Lincoln head. The carriage does look funereal.

This is an elegant carriage, seems more modern and streamlined for the 1860s. Lincoln had really aged by the time this last photo was taken. Can't imagine the stress he was under during his time as president. Here's another picture of Lincoln taken just two months before his death: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_Lincoln_O-116_by_Gardner,_1865-crop.png